{"id":448,"date":"2010-05-25T10:02:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-25T16:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharonu.com\/wordpresstest\/?p=448"},"modified":"2010-05-25T10:02:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-25T16:02:00","slug":"how-to-cut-government-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/how-to-cut-government-101\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Cut Government 101"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April revenues for the State of Idaho came in $55 Million lower than anticipated.  How do we make ends meet in the state budget, without raising taxes, when revenues are drying up?<\/p>\n<p>On February 1, 2009, the Idaho Freedom Foundation&#8217;s Wayne Hoffman wrote, &#8220;An audit of the Idaho Transportation Department shows as much as $37 million could be saved by changing procedures and operations within the agency. That alone should be cause for pause. Each penny increase in the gas tax raises $9 million, according to the state Transportation Department. That means four cents of the 10-cent fuel tax increase won&#8217;t even cover the cost of inefficiency.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On March 31, 2010, the Idaho Statesman Editorial Board opined,<\/p>\n<p class=\"indented\">&#8220;From January 2007 to September 2009, Idaho spent $6.8 million holding prisoners past their tentative parole dates. When dollars are tight everywhere in state government &#8211; including the prisons system &#8211; this estimate from state auditors should pique the curiosity of Gov. Butch Otter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indented\">Yet Otter largely dismissed the audit scrutinizing Idaho&#8217;s Commission of Pardons and Parole &#8211; and criticizing Olivia Craven, the commissions longtime and politically connected executive director.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indented\">An audit of the Idaho Transportation Department shows as much as $37 million could be saved by changing procedures and operations within the agency. That alone should be cause for pause. Each penny increase in the gas tax raises $9 million, according to the state Transportation Department. That means four cents of the 10-cent fuel tax increase won&#8217;t even cover the cost of inefficiency.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, there are savings to be had by running state government more efficiently. In less than a year, my two Ada County Commission colleagues and I cut the county&#8217;s budget by more than 11 percent &#8211; $22 Million &#8211; by eliminating or consolidating departments and finding wasteful, unnecessary spending and eliminating that, as well. All this was done without appreciably cutting services.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to cutting unnecessary spending, revenue can be increased without a tax increase, if the state&#8217;s administration were to vigorously pursue the collection of unpaid taxes and other payables already due the state.<\/p>\n<p>Here are suggestions of some other places where attention should be focused and savings methodically pursued:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Consolidate school district administration. Currently, less than half of the public education employees in Idaho are classroom teachers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Reclaim durable medical equipment that has been purchased with state funds. For example, once the need is no longer there, we can reclaim and reuse $8000 scooters, provided to people who are disabled.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Realize greater economies of scale with a consolidated purchasing department for school districts and other government agencies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Parole inmates on time to save money. According to a Legislative audit, it cost an estimated $6.8 Million to keep parole-eligible inmates in prison from January 2007 through September 2009.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Increase use of alternative sentencing. Twenty-five percent of inmates are in prison for drug and alcohol offenses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Put the state&#8217;s checkbook online and let taxpayers help find wasteful spending.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Use performance auditors to find wasteful spending and assure that  dollars are spent wisely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Implement a &#8220;workfare&#8221; program to replace the current welfare system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Reduce duplication of effort by consolidating commissions, boards, departments, agencies and districts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ultimately, we need to look at the proper role of government and set priorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April revenues for the State of Idaho came in $55 Million lower than anticipated. How do we make ends meet in the state budget, without raising taxes, when revenues are drying up? On February 1, 2009, the Idaho Freedom Foundation&#8217;s Wayne Hoffman wrote, &#8220;An audit of the Idaho Transportation Department shows as much as $37 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","czr-hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}